His imagination was haunted by the Dead Sea, or the lilies of Sharon: when he slept, he dreamed but of the cedars of Lebanon; and as a boy, he used to sit by the sea-side, and weep with his passionate longing to visit the East. Thither he travelled as soon as his will was master of his conduct.
"But do turn to one of my great favourites—that is Allan Malcolm. Does he not look as if he had just stepped across the border, with the breath of the heath and the broom fresh about him? There is an honesty in his nature which keeps him unspotted from the world—the literary world, with its many plague-spots of envyings, jealousies, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness. The face so sweet in its matron beauty is that of 'his bonnie Jeane' beside. I like to meet him sometimes: it is good for one's moral constitution to know there are such things as kindliness and integrity to be found in the world. A countryman is at this moment beside him—a stanch border minstrel, who would any day uphold the thistle to be a more poetical plant than the laurel. I own myself I think it would be more characteristic. I suspect the northern reviewer was
